View topic - Birch bark thugs - is this for canoe building???

When Bert Cooper surveyed the backyard of his Manitoulin Island property a few months ago, he was stumped: Someone had stripped the bark off his birch trees.

At first, it looked as though the culprit hit only a handful of trunks. But as the 78-year-old walked along his property, on the island that borders Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, he saw that the bark bandit was efficient and methodical — about 120 birch trees had the same two-to-three-foot section uniformly cut out.

"It was so disgusting," he told the CBC.

Cooper isn't the only victim of this curious caper. His neighbours have since had their trees stripped, too.

Bud Hebner of Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources says these thefts are becoming more commonplace. He believes the burglars are using the birch bark for crafts, as the unique texture of the bark is increasingly in demand.

Most people picture century-old paintings, jewelry and cash as typical targets of an elaborate heist. But thieves have branched out. From birch bark to beer, or in some cases even parrots and pigs, there's been some peculiar pilfering.

Sometimes the swindlers seek to capitalize on a high commodity price, which is what appears to be driving copper theft at construction sites and buildings all over Canada. In other cases, such as a slew of gory body-part thefts in New York City, the thieves are trying to fetch high profits on a very specialized black market.

In any event, there have been some very weird heists of late. Here is a partial list....